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slab

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English has two main words spelled slab: the noun for a thick flat piece, of unknown origin, and a dialect adjective meaning "thick, viscous", probably from Scandinavian.[1][2][3]

Pronunciation

slab1 thick flat piece

Etymology

The noun is inherited from Middle English slabbe, also sclabbe,[5][6][2][7] of unknown origin.[1][5][8][9][3] A borrowing from Old French esclape (“splinter, thin fragment of wood”) has been suggested, but the OED rejects it because the form does not fit,[1][6] and Barnhart thinks this and a link with the dialect word slappel (“a piece”) are connected only by meaning and too distant in form or time.[5] Klein took it as possibly Gaulish, comparing Old French escopel (“splinter, chip”), Breton scolp and Welsh ysgolp (“splinter, chip”).[10][6] Partridge suggested a link with Middle French esclate (“fragment”), now éclat,[11] and Weekley thought that, since it was first used of metal, it might first have meant a molten mass and be connected with the adjective slab2.[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

A flat, broad and fairly thick piece of something solid: about 1290, in the South English Legendary;[1] Barnhart dates sclabbe to about 1300 and slab to before 1325.[5] In early use it was said of iron, later of wood and stone.[6][7]

Semantic evolution

From 1573, in Tusser, a slab was also the rough outer plank sawn off a log before the rest is squared or cut into boards,[1][6] In Australia and New Zealand it has meant, since 1829, a coarse plank hewn with an axe, used for huts.[1][13] From the 18th century it was a flat piece of stone or wood used as a table or counter (1739), then a stone for grinding colours or spreading printing ink (1859), a stone hearth (1876) and the stone on which a body is laid in a mortuary (1903).[1] In the 20th century it became a word of architecture: a pre-cast block of reinforced concrete (1927) and a plain high-rise block (1952).[1][6] Mountaineers use it for a large smooth sheet of rock lying at an angle (1904).[1][13] The verb, formed from the noun, meant to dress timber by removing the slabs from 1703, and later to form into slabs and to pave or support with slabs.[1][2][8] The American slab-sided, with flat sides, hence tall and lank, is recorded from 1817.[6] In English dialects a slab was also a thick slice of food, a flagstone, a dairy table and, in Cornwall, a kitchen range.[14]

Timeline

  • c. 1290 – a flat, broad, thick piece of something solid.[1]
  • 1573 – the rough outer plank cut from a log.[1][6]
  • 1703 – verb, to dress timber by removing the slabs.[1][2]
  • 1739 – a flat piece of stone or wood used as a table or counter.[1]
  • 1817 – slab-sided.[6]
  • 1829 – in Australia and New Zealand, an axe-hewn plank.[1]
  • 1903 – the stone on which a body is laid in a mortuary.[1]
  • 1904 – in mountaineering, a smooth sheet of rock.[1]
  • 1927 – a pre-cast block of reinforced concrete.[1][6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A broad, flat, fairly thick piece of stone, wood, metal or other solid material: The garden path was laid with granite slabs.[13][2][1]
  2. A thick slice of food, such as cake or meat.[13][2][14]
  3. One of the rough outer pieces sawn off a log when it is squared or cut into planks.[13][2][1]
  4. In mountaineering, a large sheet of smooth rock lying at a steep angle.[13][1]
  5. (informal, chiefly British) A table in an operating theatre or a mortuary.[13][1]
  6. In building, a block of pre-cast reinforced concrete.[1][6]

Verb

  1. To cut or form into slabs.[2][1][8]
  2. To remove the outer slabs from a log.[2][1]
  3. To cover, pave or support with slabs.[2][1][8]
  4. To put on thickly, as with a knife: She slabbed jam on her toast.[2][1]

Word family

  • slab-sided
  • slablike
  • paving slab

slab2 thick, viscous

Etymology

The adjective is probably of early Scandinavian origin.[1][2][3] It is related to the dialect noun meaning mud or a puddle,[1][8] which is apparently Scandinavian too: the OED and Hoad compare older Danish slab (“mud, mire”) and Icelandic slabb, Norwegian slabb and Swedish slabb (“wet filth, slops”),[1][3] and MWU names an obsolete Danish slab, slippery.[2] Irish slab and Scottish Gaelic slaib (“mire, mud”) are probably from English.[1] The Middle English verb slabben (“to wallow”) may belong here; the MED compares Norwegian slabbe (“to make a mess”).[15][1] Johnson took the adjective to be of the same origin as slabber or slaver.[16][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

Thick, semi-solid, viscous: in Shakespeare's Macbeth, where the witches make "the gruel thick and slab", before 1616,[1][16][14] though MWU dates its first use to 1605.[2]

Semantic evolution

Weekley found the adjective only in Macbeth before the 19th century,[12] and the SOED notes that it occurs chiefly in the phrase thick and slab, after Shakespeare.[8] Johnson (1755) defined it as "thick; viscous; glutinous" and gave a second entry for the noun, a puddle.[16] The noun meant a muddy place or puddle from 1610 and slimy matter or ooze from 1622, and is now dialectal.[1][8] Wright's dialect dictionary records the adjective in Lancashire and Suffolk, the noun "puddle, wet place" in northern England and East Anglia, and in Yorkshire, East Anglia and Kent a slab for a drudge or a dyer's or bricklayer's helper.[14] MWU adds a figurative sense, of writing that is sloppily sentimental or laid on too thickly.[2]

Timeline

  • 1605 – first known use according to MWU.[2]
  • before 1616 – thick, viscous, in Macbeth.[1]
  • 1610 – noun, a muddy place, a puddle.[1]
  • 1622 – noun, wet and slimy matter, ooze.[1]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. (dialect or literary) Thick and sticky; viscous.[2][8][1][14]
  2. Sloppily sentimental, or laid on too thickly.[2]

Noun

  1. (dialect) A muddy place or puddle.[1][8][14][2]
  2. (rare) Wet, slimy matter; ooze.[1][8]

Word family

  • slabby

Usage notes

Several minor words share the spelling.[2][1] A verb slab, to eat or drink hastily and messily, now Scots, is probably from Middle Dutch slabben or Low German.[1][8][14] The nautical slab, the slack part of a sail, is probably short for slab line,[2][1] and in angling, originally in New Zealand, a slab is a weak or spent game fish, of uncertain origin.[1][8]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  3. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  5. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ a b Stratmann, Francis Henry (1891), A Middle-English Dictionary, revised by Henry Bradley, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  11. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
  12. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  13. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  14. ^ a b c d e f g Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
  15. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
  16. ^ a b c Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.